Netone, the government-owned second largest mobile telephone operator in Zimbabwe, lost 72 106 subscribers in the third quarter of this year according to figures released by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ).
The country’s largest mobile network operator, Econet, gained 627 828 subscribers more than the entire number of subscribers for the third network, Telecel, which gained only 486 subscribers to reach 469 489.
Other highlights for the postal and telecommunications sector for the third quarter were:
- Total active fixed telephone lines increased by 2.8% to reach 290 810 from 282 843; the fixed tele-density increased by 0.06% to reach 1.92%, from 1.86%.
- Total active mobile subscriptions increased by 4% to reach 14 562 242; up from 14 006 034. Hence, the mobile penetration rate increased by 3.6% to reach 95.9%, from 92.3%.
- Total active Internet and data subscriptions increased by 4.3% to reach 9 700 385, from 9 300 560. The Internet penetration rate increased by 2.6% to reach 63.9%, from 61.3%.
- Total fixed telephone voice traffic increased by 1% to record 84.6 million minutes, from 83.7 million minutes.
- Mobile voice traffic totalled 3.08 billion minutes. This represents a 31.2% growth from 2.35 billion minutes.
- Mobile Internet & Data traffic totalled 32 473.1 Terabytes, which is 26.1% up from 25 755.9 Terabytes.
- Used Incoming International Internet Bandwidth Capacity increased by 4.3% to record 230 677Mbps, from 221 181Mbps.
- Total postal and courier volumes increased by 4.5% to record 547 125 items, from 523 342 items recorded in the second quarter of 2022.
- Total mobile operator revenues grew by 103.9% to record $61.39 billion, from $30.1 billion; whilst operating costs grew by 97.1% to record $48.6 billion from $24.7 billion.
- Revenue generated by the fixed telephone network grew by 122% to record $11.43 billion, from $5.15 billion; whilst operating costs increased by 73.8% to record $9.9 billion from $5.7 billion.
- IAP revenues grew by 104.8% to record $30.86 billion, from $15.07 billion; whilst operating costs for IAPs grew by 52.9% to record $18.25 billion, from $11.93 billion.
- Total revenue generated by the postal and courier sector increased by 49.4% to record $3.9 billion, from $2.6 billion; whilst operating costs increased by 40.5% to record $2.9 billion, from $2.08 billion.
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